Blinds And Position

Things you will learn:

• What the concept of 'position' is in poker
• What ‘blinds’ are in a game of poker

When you sit down at a table the first thing you should look for is where the dealer button is.

This little white round disc indicates who the dealer is for that hand. The dealer seat (known as the button) is the best seat in poker, because you get to act last in each betting round. And where you sit in relation to the dealer is very important.

Don't worry about having a bad seat when you sit down, because the dealer button moves each hand.

The seats to the right of the dealer are the next best seats at the table. They allow you to see what most players do before you have to act. The seat to the immediate right of the dealer is known as the cutoff and the next seat to the right is known as the hijack seat. Collectively these seats are known as late position.

The next three seats are known as mid-position and are relatively good spots in Hold'em, as you still get to see what the early position players do before you have to act.

The worst seats at a poker table are seats in early position - the two seats to the left of the dealer. They have to act first in betting rounds - which means that they don't have the advantage of knowing what their opponents are going to do first.

The seats to the left of the dealer are called the blinds. They have to pay a compulsory bet before they even see their cards. The blinds are like a poker tax that's used to start the betting action.

Without the blinds, people would just wait for good cards and slow the game down.

The seat to the immediate left of the dealer is the small blind and the seat to the left of the small blind is the big blind. The amount of the blinds changes according to the If you see a game described as $1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em this means the small blind places a bet of $1 and the big blind places a bet of $2 at the start of each hand.